Not-So-Super Bowl?

So there we had it. After the NFL's Championship Sunday, we had two weeks of buildup to what was supposed to be the best Super Bowl of recent years. First there were the Seattle Seahawks, now of the NFC, making their first Super Bowl appearance in team history. It was not a huge surprise that the Seahawks were there; they were the #1 seed in the NFC with the best record. They had the NFL's Most Valuable Player, scored the most points in the conference, and had a solid defense. Representing the AFC were the Pittsburgh Steeelers. A lot of fuss made about a #6 seed making it to the big dance, but this was not your ordinary #6. This team was on a winning streak since November and they are known for being able to do the two thiings that it takes to win in the NFL: they can run the ball and they can stop the run. There were several storylines that endeared the Steelers to people that did not ordinarily don the black and gold. First, there was Jerome Bettis, a more likeable guy not to be found, retiring as the fifth best rusher in league history AND the Super Bowl being hosted in his hometown. Then there was Bill Cower, the coach that holds the longest current tenure as head coach for his team, who is revered as well as respected by many. Seattle, however, didn't bring that much to the table. There was Shaun Alexander, the league's top runner, and there was Mike Holmgren, taking his second team to the Super Bowl and his third appearance overall as a head coach. Finally the big game came. All the anticipation was over, and the game was on. I thought that the first half was a little tough to stomach, and at the close of the half a lot of fans were praying that the game was going to get better. For the most part, it lacked excitement, there were a lot of stalled drives, mistakes made, and very little scoring. Then the second half began. There was finally some excitement to the game, the idea of scoring was more of a possibility than a dream, and the fans seemed to wake up (maybe that was the Stones' doing). The mistakes, mostly by Seattle, were still there, however. The refs must have decided that Seattle wan't the only bunch in town that could botch the biggest game of the year, so not to be outdone, they jumped in so that they could get America talking about their (lack of) performance around the water coolers on Monday morning. None of the game's big stars were worth talking about. In fact, there was such a lack of a standout performer that when the game was over, I looked at my friend and asked, "So who's the MVP?" He didn't have an answer for me and he's a die-hard Steelers fan. If you look at some of the players that were expected to play a big part, it didn't happen. The Bus had 43 yards on the day. Roethlisberger had the worst QB rating of any winning QB in a Super Bowl: 22. You didn't hear Polamalu's or Joey Porter's names the entire game. Alexander didn't light up the board and Hasselbeck made too many mistakes, not to mention that they were on the losing team. So, as far as I'm concerned, this is not a game that's going to go into the annals and join the likes of Super Bowl III (Jets-Colts), either of the 49ers-Bengals Super Bowls, XXV (Giants-Buffalo), XXXIV (Rams-Titans), or XXXVI (Patriots-Rams). No, this Super Bowl will go down as one of the forgetables, like the first two that the Packers won, the two that Dallas wrecked Buffalo in, or when the 49ers beat Denver 55-10. Super Bowl? No, I would say that SB XL was more of a Snoozer Bowl.